


we were in screaming color.

by romulus_adhara



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Irregular Office AU, M/M, Misunderstandings, Smoking, Swearing, are kinda here?, but blink and you miss it, dreamies are the annoying interns, ig??, johnmark, office gossip and shenanigans, taeten - Freeform, too many the office references, unhealthy use of the word ‘bro’, yujaeil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24570193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romulus_adhara/pseuds/romulus_adhara
Summary: “No.” Taeil shakes his head again. His earring hits his cheek, and Taeyong snorts. “It’s because… Because... Well, you see, Yutafucks, whereas Jaehyun… He… Hemakes love.”“You know, it makes sense now,” Johnny murmurs, the pencil leaving his mouth with a smackingpop.“What?”“Why you’re single,” Taeyong supplies.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Moon Taeil, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Moon Taeil/Nakamoto Yuta, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Nakamoto Yuta, Moon Taeil/Nakamoto Yuta
Comments: 22
Kudos: 169
Collections: Hyuckie Moon Exchange 2020





	we were in screaming color.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> the prompt was "where taeil watches as his best friends fall in love and maybe there's space for all three of them." and I kinda ran with it, really hope you like it!  
> title from taylor swift - out of the woods bc i don't have imagination

//

Yuta fucks.

That is a fact very well known around the office, but it’s not something they actively talk about. It’s just general awareness, like one of the many things people know without having to actively discuss it. Things like pizzas on birthdays.

Every time there’s a birthday, they have a pizza day; Johnny’s the one to ask to change the water cooler because he likes to show off; Taeyong is not to be messed with because Taeyong is everyone’s sunshine; Yuta fucks.

And it never bothered Taeil. Hell, he even enjoyed listening to stories about Yuta’s adventures, because they’re always fun, and while being an elegant whore, Yuta is also always an extremely respectful and pleasant guy, and so it’s not new for people to kinda use his stories for tips. Plus, Yuta is one of Taeil’s best friends, and as they say, one shall always be happy when one’s bestie gets regular dick or pussy. And Taeil is happy. And it never bothered him that Yuta fucks.

Until one day he starts fucking Jaehyun.

“You don’t know that,” Taeyong contradicts with a sardonic sigh.

“No, but _you_ do,” Taeil huffs. “But you refuse to spill.”

“Jaehyun is my bro,” Yong points out reasonably. “Bros before... other bros.”

“So you’re telling me he’s a bigger bro than I am?”

“I— Piss off.”

Johnny rolls to their desks and clicks his tongue. “I hear ‘bro’, I arrive.”

Taeyong, ever the traitor, smirks and leans in. “Taeil is jealous.”

“Ohh, who’s on the other end?”

“Unclear. Either Yuta or Jaehyun.”

Taeil seethes at them when he sees Jaehyun emerge from the kitchen. Johnny zooms back to his place, and Taeyong pretends he’s seeing something extremely important on his computer, even though all of them know he’s been staring at the same picture of Ten from the New Year’s party for the better part of the morning. Jaehyun smiles at Taeil as he walks past them toward his own cubicle, and Taeil thinks he even manages to smile back without making it so obvious they’ve been talking about him.

Johnny rolls up again when Jaehyun turns the corner and rejoins Doyoung at their joint table.

“So what’s the tea?”

“Nothing. Piss off.”

Taeyong clicks his tongue. “If there was nothing, you wouldn’t care if Jaehyun and Yuta are sleeping together.”

“I’m just—” Taeil shakes his head in annoyance. “I’m just looking out for him.”

“Why?” Johnny wonders with a frown. “Yuta is a good guy, and Jaehyun isn’t some damsel in distress.”

“Yeah, he can distress people himself with no trouble,” Yong confirms.

“I _know that_ ,” Taeil huffs. “It’s just… They’re both amazing people, I just don’t think they would be a good fit.”

“Because you think _you_ would be a good fit for one of them?” Johnny asks slyly, teething on his pencil.

“ _No_.” Taeil shakes his head again. His earring hits his cheek, and Taeyong snorts. “It’s because… Because... Well, you see, Yuta _fucks_ , whereas Jaehyun… He… He _makes love_.”

He knows the reaction even before he finishes speaking, but sometimes his brain-to-mouth filter decides to check out and he simply cannot stop himself from putting his foot in his mouth. Both Johnny and Taeyong stare at him, befuddled, for so long that he starts squirming under their gazes.

“You know, it makes sense now,” Johnny murmurs, the pencil leaving his mouth with a smacking _pop_.

“What?”

“Why you’re single,” Taeyong supplies.

Taeil genuinely, truly, honestly hates them both and their telepathic best-bro bond.

“ _Piss off_ ,” Taeil says for the third time today, but honestly, he doesn’t even know why he’s trying — it never works, only seems to agitate his dumbass friends even more. They’re like goddamn monkeys with proverbial poop. He needs new ones.

“No, because you’re fit as hell,” Johnny continues, “and smart, funny, _extremely_ adorable, and, according to Jongdae from purchasing, have a magic dick.”

Taeil sputters and goes red at an alarming rate. “When did you even…”

“At his wedding,” Taeyong once again replies instead of Johnny. “We got pissed drunk while you were babysitting his daughter and shared our best hookups.”

“Yeah?” Taeil says, squinting at him. Two can play at this game. “Which one was yours?”

Taeyong’s face falls immediately, turning so tragic that Taeil even regrets bringing it up. He clears his throat.

“Stop discussing it,” he asks. “I’m not jealous. They’re just both my best friends, and I wish them all the best.”

With that, he sharply turns his chair around and focuses on his screen. Or at least he tries to.

“We still don’t know who he’s jealous of,” Johnny murmurs from before him.

Taeyong hums and whispers, “Should we start a betting pool?”

“Oh _yeah_.”

Taeil hears them sneak out of their places and set out to, no doubt, spread atrocious and absolutely fake rumors about Taeil all throughout the office. He glances at Kun’s door, but the manager is hard at work, not even realizing his employees are being little shits. Then again, they always are, and Taeil reckons Kun developed a sort of immunity to it. Considering that Ten is the other manager and Kun has to deal with him even more than with them, that man is a saint with the patience of an angel.

He sighs and drums his fingers on the table, right next to the framed picture of them all at the famed New Year’s party. Yuta and Jaehyun are at his sides, and he can still remember their warmth against him. He also remembers their hands being linked behind his back.

He’s not jealous of either of them. He’s happy. They’re both his best friends, and he’s happy there might be something between them.

A traitorous little voice inside clears its throat.

_Just for argument’s sake, if you were jealous, who would you be jealous of?_

Taeil rubs his eyes. If only he could answer that one to himself.

//

Yuta finds him in the smoking room. Taeil barely holds back from whimpering when he sees his new hair, a black undercut contrasting against the white top. Yuta notes his reaction and smirks.

“I _know_ ,” he whispers as he walks closer and snatches Taeil’s pack to steal a cigarette. “My aim is to make _everyone_ drool over me.”

“Is it working out so far?” Taeil asks as he slowly recovers from the shock.

Yuta giggles and purses his lips. “Yep. Jaehyun _cursed_ when he saw it. And Jaehyun _never_ curses.”

Taeil’s mood does a backflip and lands on a thin edge over a dark pit, pausing there as it waits for Taeil to decide if it should take the swan dive.

“When did he see it?” He asks cautiously.

“Uhm, yesterday?” Yuta remembers, scratching _a fucking eyebrow slit sweet jesus and mary mother of god._ “Yeah, I came over right after my appointment.”

Taeil finishes his cigarette and allows his mood to plummet to its death.

“You seem really close lately,” he murmurs, putting his cigarette out a little too harshly.

Yuta sucks in his lips as he meets Taeil’s eyes with something undecipherable hidden in his. “Do you mind that?”

That’s a weird question to ask, Taeil realizes as his mouth opens slightly in surprise. He’d expect Yuta to kindly ask him not to get in his business or joke it off, but right now, it looks as if Yuta is _asking_ his permission to be with Jaehyun, and that’s something Taeil knows for a fact is bullshit.

“Why would I?” He counter-asks. “You’re grown people. Fuck away.”

Yuta’s face goes even more closed off, his irises blown wide. He chuckles a little sadly and looks at the floor.

“Nah, I don’t think it’s gonna end after that,” he shares quietly.

 _Why me?,_ Taeil wonders martyrly. He was just minding his own business, being secretly and very under-control horny for some of his best friends, and then they had to go and start a relationship right under his nose? He deserves better.

“That’s nice,” he says with a smile that he _thinks_ looks genuine. “He’s a good guy.”

“That he is.” Yuta chuckles and licks his lips, which helps Taeil see he has a tongue piercing.

_For fuck’s sake, Nakamoto, do you mind?_

The air is charged with that energy that isn’t awkward per se but is about to become such, like before a storm. Taeil watches Yuta fumble with his bracelets as he clears his throat.

“You should go out with us sometime,” Yuta says suddenly, with such an audible strain it feels like he _forced_ himself to speak.

Taeil blinks at him in surprise. “Like a double-date thing? I don’t even have a boyfriend.”

Yuta looks up at him sharply, his jaw moving. “That’s not what I—”

The door swings open to reveal Taeyong, who immediately scrunches his nose up even though they’re on the other side of the room and the fans are working at full speed.

“Ten is having a meeting,” he announces. “You’re needed.”

With that, he’s promptly gone. Yuta clicks his tongue and puts the cigarette out. Taeil goes to follow Taeyong, but Yuta catches up to him quickly and briefly touches his wrist.

“We’re not done with this conversation,” he whispers urgently before they’re in the corridor and surrounded by their coworkers, which makes talking uncomfortable.

Taeil frowns to himself all the way to the conference room. Yuta’s never invited him to double dates, mainly because Yuta barely ever _dates_. Does he really care about his approval so much? That doesn’t make any sense. All three of them have known each other for years, and just because Jaehyun is shifting from the title of their mutual friend to the one of Yuta’s boyfriend doesn’t mean he’s suddenly changed.

But if they want him there, Taeil will have to suck it up and do it for friendship.

 _Yay_ , friendship. He wishes someone choked him, and only barely in a sexual way.

//

Johnny leans next to Taeil on the wall by the cooler and clicks his tongue.

“It’s a party,” he announces counter-productively. “Loosen up.”

“I’m loose,” Taeil argues with a movement of his lips that is decidedly _not_ a pout. “I have a drink, see?”

Johnny takes a peek into his cup and levels him with a glare. “That’s orange juice. If there’s no vodka in it, you’re no longer my friend.”

Taeil rolls his eyes, but Johnny doesn’t relent even after twenty seconds of staring.

“There’s martini,” he mumbles.

“That’s my boy,” Johnny beams. “So Taeyong reports he caught you talking to Yuta in the smoking room today.”

“Stop playing secret agents,” Taeil murmurs, shifting from one leg to another. “And we’re colleagues and friends. So what if we were talking?”

“What was the topic?”

“His new haircut.”

“And?”

“ _And_ how you need to stop reporting live from everyone’s business,” Taeil bites out.

The song changes from Lady Gaga to something definitely not of Taeil’s taste, and that, coupled with Johnny’s nagging, makes him fear he’ll develop a migraine at this rate.

“Office survives on gossip, beloved,” Johnny reasons. “So?”

Taeil contemplates ignoring him, but then he sees Jaehyun looking his way, so he turns his head to Johnny and pretends he’s super engaged in this conversation.

“They seem to be getting serious with Jaehyun,” he says reluctantly. “At least Yuta wants it to be. He even proposed we double-date.”

Johnny does a sharp turn from where he was watching Doyoung blow the candles on his cake while trying to sing — or yell — along to Taylor Swift blasting overhead. Jungwoo music taste is truly something to behold.

“Yuta? _Date?_ ”

“Yep.”

“Damn.” Johnny frowns and rubs his chin like a detective from a cheap noir. “Wait, what exactly did he ask?”

“If I would double-date with them.”

“Did he use that exact wording?”

“What does it matter?” Taeil snaps. Thinking about it doesn’t really help his grogginess. “He said, _You should go out with us sometime_. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

Johnny hums without much enthusiasm as his brow furrows in thought. “You know…”

“Shh, Doyoung is up.”

On the other side of the office space, Doyoung gets up on the table to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Taeil watches him fondly, noting the flock of interns on the ground looking up at him like he created the earth itself. As Doyoung’s speech progresses, Taeil notices Mark depart the crowd and sneak away into the kitchen after throwing a glance their way.

“Right, that’s my cue,” Johnny says, clearing his throat. “But before I go, you’re an idiot. Talk to them about that _double-dating_.”

“Just fuck off and go grope an intern,” Taeil seethes at him.

Johnny flips him off and departs to do just that, all the while Doyoung finally climbs off to be caught in a group cuddle. Taeil chuckles into his cup and takes a sip, but that move proves to be fatal when he lowers it and realizes Jaehyun is now next to him. Taeil chokes on his drink but collects himself quickly.

“Having fun?” Jaehyun asks, leaning his shoulder next to Taeil’s and watching his profile.

Taeil stares straight ahead of him, knowing that if he looks at Jaehyun, he will be in dangerous proximity to _the dimples_ and that is a casualty his common sense will _not_ survive.

“A blast,” he says sourly, but then catches himself and puts on a smile. “Parties aren’t really my thing, but it’s good for morale. And Doyoung’s a good friend, so.”

“So,” Jaehyun trails. Taeil _feels_ him licking his lips. Jesus Christ on a stick. “Yuta told me you talked.”

Goddamn, is _everyone_ obsessed with a brief conversation they’ve had that didn’t even mean squat? What is this, _Real Housewives of Office 127_?

“Uhm, yeah,” he pushes out. “Congrats. You make a good couple.”

“Thanks,” Jaehyun says in that same sly voice that is supposed to make Taeil uncomfortable but is actually making him lean toward going to the supply closet and curling up on the stack of Durilla paper. “So what about that date?”

Well, they are _persistent_.

“I’d be happy to,” Taeil says, hoping the dim lighting of the room is hiding his misery well.

He makes the mistake of looking at Jaehyun’s face then, which in turn allows him to witness a sunny full-on-dimples smile grace Jaehyun’s lips. Good lips, nice lips. _Get a grip._

“That’s amazing,” Jaehyun breathes out. His hand travels up to brush off invisible dirt from Taeil’s shoulder.

“But I don’t even have anyone,” Taeil points out. “I don’t even know whom to ask out.”

Jaehyun’s face freezes comically, his eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”

“Well, I need someone to bring to a double date, right?” Taeil wagers. “And my love life has been rather dry lately.”

Jaehyun’s hand on his shoulder gets heavier as he grips Taeil’s arm. “No, I think you didn’t—”

“ _Taeil!_ ”

Taeil tears his gaze away from Jaehyun’s angelic face and sees two hyperactive interns scatter to a halt before him.

“Hi,” Donghyuck breathes out with a sweet but mischievous smile that Taeil instantly distrusts.

“We kinda need your help,” Jaemin says with the same sweetness.

Red alert.

“Who died?” Taeil can’t help but blurt out.

Jaehyun next to him laughs, which is really unfair of him, since Taeil doesn’t have the chance to marvel at it right now.

“Nobody,” Jaemin rushes to assure him.

“Yet,” Hyuck murmurs ominously.

“Jeno just got stuck in the trash chute.”

“ _Again_?” Taeil hisses, setting his cup aside. “For fuck’s sake, Jaemin, you’re supposed to be the responsible one when Mark isn’t there. Where was he, by the way?”

The twinning owl looks from the interns send Taeil’s mind into a fleeting frenzy before he remembers where Johnny ran off to, and he breathes out.

“Never mind,” he mumbles. “Let’s go.”

“Hey, wait!” Jaehyun stops him, gripping his forearm. Taeil notes that his palm is very warm and wants to whimper. “We need to talk, and—”

“Later, ‘kay?” Taeil urges. “I’ll find a date and we’ll discuss the details.”

He leaves in a hurry before he hears Jaehyun’s response, but he does see him rubbing his face before exiting the office. Weird. Taeil agreed to their weird idea, didn’t he?

All the thoughts of Jaehyun and Yuta and his pathetic attempts to get over his crushes get temporarily and blessedly put on hold as he goes to rescue his intern from the premature death, and in some part, he’s grateful to the dumbass for that. If Taeil spends more time stressing over those two, no amount of dye will cover the grey hair he’ll develop.

//

Monday arrives like his homophobic grandma at the family gatherings. Not welcome, Taeil can barely stomach it, it _hates_ him, but he still has to tolerate it because Mom said so.

He spent the weekend screening all his messages and binging _The Office_ , very well realizing that irony was _not_ lost on that one, which led him to go to bed at one in the morning because he couldn’t fall asleep without finishing a season, and so he feels like absolute shit as he stumbles into the kitchen and pours himself some coffee.

“Milk?” Jaemin notes from his dark corner. “Weak.”

Taeil eyes his own coffee, which looks as dark as the pits of hell, and frowns. “At least my heart will work longer than yours.”

“I’m not sticking around for long,” Jaemin points out conversationally. “I’m leaving on the first spaceship off this planet.”

Taeil takes a very measured breath as he mixes his coffee and reminds himself they actually need the interns to like the office and stick around. “You keep that up, and your blood will work as fuel for that.”

Jaemin cackles and slaps him on the shoulder on his way out of the kitchen. What a brat, honestly. What happened to respect and manners?

He turns around with a solid resolve to go complain to Johnny, who will most probably not back him up, but gets stopped in his tracks.

“Third time’s a charm,” Yuta starts off, licking his lips.

Right. The tongue piercing. How could Taeil forget. It’s almost as if he _didn’t_ have dreams about that one ever since he saw it.

Jaehyun doesn’t look better off. He’s not wearing his jacket, so Taeil gets a full view of his toned forearms, with a tattoo decorating one of them. Taeil legit suspects his brain will malfunction.

They’re both standing _really_ close to him, so he backs away until his waist hits the kitchen counter. Yuta and Jaehyun don’t seem to get the hint, advancing on him until he’s cornered.

“What’s up?” He manages to wheeze out, nervously twirling his coffee around. “How was the weekend?’

“Splendid.” Yuta shoots out. “Go out with us.”

_Oh come on._

“I already said I will,” Taeil says. “I just need to find a—”

“No,” Jaehyun cuts him off, palms raised up. “Nobody else. Just you.”

Taeil frowns. Tries to process it. Blinks. Blinks again.

“That would be unproductive, wouldn’t it?” He tries after clearing his throat.

Jaehyun gives him a _look_ that Taeil can’t for the life of him decipher, while Yuta crosses his arms and covers his mouth with his hand.

“You’re so… adorable,” he whispers wistfully.

“I think I’m morosexual,” Jaehyun points out, still _looking_ at him.

“Mood,” Yuta echoes.

Taeil decides his brain is not awake enough for this and checks out, just standing there and not even trying to wonder what the fuck is going on. So there they are, Taeil and two people he had wet dreams about on several separate occasions. And they’re both unavailable. This isn’t fair, really.

Kun bursts into the kitchen in all his manager glory, flinging a stack of papers around.

“Have you seen my assistant?” He grits through his teeth, uncharacteristically agitated.

“Hendery’s in the annex,” Jaehyun supplies helpfully. “He’s helping Jaemin and Renjun make paper planes.”

“Paper pl—” Kun sputters. Taeil thinks he can physically see his soul leaving his body. “Would at least _you_ please get to work?”

“Sure, boss,” Taeil rushes to say, using the fact Yuta and Jaehyun are distracted to slip through the crack in their offense wall and desert the kitchen.

Taeyong squints at him when he sits down and opens his mouth, but then Ten, Taeil’s personal little blessing, looks out of his office to call Taeyong in, and the guy scatters inside with a small smile. Taeil arches his eyebrow and taps his table three times. Johnny rolls closer as on command.

“Sup?”

“Are these two at it again?” He asks, pointing at the glass office, where Ten and Taeyong are discussing something with faces that look too innocent to be genuine.

Johnny hums and rubs his chin. “I’m not allowed to tell you, but Ten spent a weekend at our apartment. In _Taeyong’s room_ , obviously. It’s fair to say they’re on again.”

“Good for them, I guess,” Taeil murmurs. The dumbass couple, as those informed about their _relationship_ has dubbed them, leave Ten’s office and disappear down the corridor.

“You jealous?” Johnny asks with a smirk.

“Not of either of them,” Taeil confesses with a sigh. “Just of… companionship.”

Johnny looks over the office and to Yuta and Jaehyun whispering to each other near the cooler and sighs.

“Stop being so clueless,” he advises. “And you’ll get it.”

Taeil pushes his chair away to his desk and puts his chin on his hands. Easy to say for Johnny, he’s been sneaking around with certain interns for months. Taeil’s gaze falls on the supply closet, where he knows for a fact Jungwoo already placed the Valentine’s Day decorations. Everybody seems to be catching the love fever and pairing up as the holiday approaches, and here he is, alone like a scarecrow in a field.

Yuta walks past his desk, and Taeil follows him with his eyes, not even trying to hide a sigh that escapes him. If only Jaehyun or Yuta weren’t already taken, he’d definitely get the courage to ask out either one of them. Or both. Damn, that would be amazing. Yuta drops into his seat and looks up at Taeil, sending him a wink. Taeil’s stomach flips.

Yeah, right. As if he would ever get the courage to go out with them. As if _they_ would—

Right, that’s a bad train of thought. Taeil sniffs and cracks his neck. Time to stop thinking about Yuta and Jaehyun and work.

Jaehyun suddenly appears next to his desk and drops off some documents before brushing his hand over Taeil’s shoulder and leaving.

Okay. Maybe, _just_ work.

//

The workweek passes in a blur of overdue reports, Ten going off the rails with making the quarterly plan, and Taeil escaping Yuta and Jaehyun at every corner. By the time Friday rolls around and Jungwoo sends out an office-wide plea for someone to help him decorate for the Valentines and Taeil answers out of the kindness of his poor overworked soul, he feels like transforming into a blanket burrito and finishing the rest of _The Office_ the first chance he gets.

Jungwoo dips somewhere between prettying up the kitchen and the annex, and Taeil is so focused on attaching the wings to all the little cupids that he only notices he’s the only one left along with Yuta and Jaehyun when it’s too late.

He sees them conspiring over something over at the annex, but his brain is such a mush that he doesn’t even find it in himself to stress. He still hasn’t found anyone to ask out, so if they get on his case again, he’ll just resort to third-wheeling while they act all cute and couple-y. It sounds like a nightmare scenario, but he really doesn’t want to lose his friends, and he’ll have to squash his crushes on them if he wants to preserve something that is, in retrospect, even more precious.

He finishes twenty minutes later and steps back to admire his work. It looks pretty, it really does, and a humanitarian part of him is excited to see his coworkers enjoy it when they come in on Monday.

“You did amazing,” Jaehyun admires, coming up behind him.

Taeil opens his mouth to respond but then feels something — warm hands sneaking around his waist and gently holding him. His heart stops as Jaehyun puts his chin on his shoulder.

 _Okay._ That is— That is interesting.

“Is this okay?” Jaehyun whispers _very_ close to his ear.

_Is it okay? Is it fucking okay?!_

“Yes,” Taeil manages to whisper through his dry lips. “But Yuta—”

“—is very okay with it,” Yuta finishes for him, appearing from his other side.

Yes, this is it. This is the day he dies.

Yuta tucks a strand of white hair behind his ear and smiles at him in a way that, Taeil thinks, people _don’t_ smile at someone with their boyfriend attached to their back. Yuta steps closer to him and reaches out to fix Taeil’s tie that loosened while he was working.

“So,” he drawls, looking at anything but Taeil’s eyes. Which is for the best, Taeil reckons, because his body feels on fire already from Jaehyun’s hands placed over his ribs. He doesn’t think he can take more of it.

“When we said, _go out with us_ ,” Jaehyun whispers. “We meant _you alone_ with _both of us_.”

_Wait a diddy darn second._

“Oh,” Taeil breathes out. Everything that’s happened in the past two weeks flashes before his eyes. “ _Oh_.”

Yuta’s eyes flicker to meet his, and yep, he was right. It _is_ too much.

“Would _that_ be okay?” He asks, and probably for the first time since Taeil’s known him, he witnesses Yuta Nakamoto being nervous.

Right. Taeil assesses his surroundings.

One of his crushes is hugging him from behind, his nose carefully nuzzling at Taeil’s neck. Another crush is standing in front of him, his fingers playing with Taeil’s limp ones.

Taeil forces the initial shock down and allows another emotion to settle in — _joy_.

All in all, it’s not too bad for his good old gay ass. He wets his lips and makes his limbs work, intertwining his fingers with Yuta.

“Yes,” he whispers, turning his head to give Jaehyun better access to his neck. “I think it would.”

Jaehyun takes it as permission to kiss his skin — which it was, thank you very much — and Taeil desperately tries not to close his eyes, because any man who closes their eyes when there is a whole Yuta Nakamoto in front of them looking at them like _that_ is a dumbass and deserves to be shamed.

Yuta grips his fingers tighter and raises his free hand to hook Taeil’s chin. His thumb plays with Taeil’s lower lip as he looks into Taeil’s eyes for permission.

“I would really like to kiss you now,” Yuta whispers.

“Yes please,” Taeil squeals undignified, earning a soft chuckle from Jaehyun that sends goosebumps down his neck.

Yuta laughs quietly too, but Taeil doesn’t have time _or_ desire to feel embarrassed, because the next thing he knows, Yuta’s lips are on his, and the world kinda blurs away. He smells peppermint and something underlyingly sweet. It’s a chaste kiss, just a taste of what’s to come and a promise of more, but Taeil enjoys it nevertheless. Jaehyun hugs him closer, leaving kisses up his jaw and slowly inching toward his lips.

“Can I?”

Taeil turns to meet his lips instead of an answer, catching another laugh with his mouth. It all feels too much, but it isn’t overwhelming — he feels at peace surrounded by their warmth and smell, and so he lets his tired body relax in the hands of two men he never thought he would get a chance with.

They part, and Taeil looks over their faces to see if it’s all just a dream, but they’re _real_ , their hands on him are real, and their warm eyes are real. Taeil swallows and blinks rapidly, his entire body floaty and pliant.

“I guess I don’t really need to find a date, then,” he murmurs, because his brain-to-mouth filter has permanently resigned from its duties.

But they don’t mind, it seems. Jaehyun laughs into his shoulder, his hold tightening on Taeil’s waist, and Yuta leans in again to kiss his nose. The lights are mostly off in the office, but the saving ones provide enough illumination for him to see the shine in Yuta’s eyes and the slight blush on Jaehyun’s cheeks.

He doesn’t know how he got lucky enough to have not one but _two_ people he likes to like him back, and he doesn’t know how he could be such a moron as to not realize their advances before, and he doesn’t really know how to navigate a relationship with two people when he was never that excellent at doing it with one, but when there’s no knowledge, there is hope. And he hopes desperately as he holds both of their hands that this works out. Something in their smiles tells him it will, and he lets go of his anxieties and trusts them.

One thing he knows for sure — Johnny and Taeyong will _love_ this tea.

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be angsty, but i think we all need a good chuckle then and again.  
> i just want everyone here to know that I decided this is gonna be yujaeil like a week before punch teasers dropped and we saw them like THAT. I just think my brain sexy thank you  
> hope it was okay! hehe i really enjoyed writing this, and please do forgive my lame attempts at being funny


End file.
